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A consistent narrative emerged during this year’s Fund Summit: alternatives and private markets are entering a new phase of scale and accessibility, technology is redefining operational architectures, and Europe’s long-standing competitiveness challenge is becoming too pressing to ignore.

The tone was forward-looking and often surprisingly aligned across different parts of the investment value chain. What used to be separate conversations—alternatives over here, ETFs over there, digital transformation in a separate conversation—now converged into a single storyline. Europe stands on the threshold of an industry transformation driven by capital demands, investor expectations, and technological acceleration. And the question hanging over the Summit was whether the industry can mobilize fast enough.

Private Markets Make the Leap to the Mainstream

If one topic dominated the Summit, it was the shift of private markets from specialist allocation to essential portfolio component. The panel moderated by Fiona Devadassi of Arendt captured this shift with striking clarity. Speakers from Apollo, Partners Group and BlackRock outlined how private markets are no longer a niche reserved for institutional investors but have become central to financing the European and global economy.

The traditional 60/40 model has struggled, and investors are therefore searching for real diversification, resilient cash flows and structural growth—attributes long associated with private equity, private credit, infrastructure and real assets. The panel underscored that this is not merely a product preference but an economic necessity. Key sectors driving Europe’s future require levels of capital that governments and banks cannot supply on their own. Private sources of long-term capital are becoming indispensable.

As one panelist noted, the investable universe itself has changed: the number of public companies in the United States has fallen from 8,000 to around 4,000 over recent decades. In Europe, roughly 90% of companies generating more than €100 million in annual revenue remain private. For decades, individuals had no access to this segment. That exclusion is now being actively dismantled. “Individual investors have been missing out, and they need the same opportunity set that institutions have had,” one speaker said, capturing the sentiment of the room.

Retailisation Accelerates, But Only if the Industry Reinvents Itself

The Summit made clear that retailisation is not simply a trend, it is the next defining chapter in private markets. Yet expanding access to private assets is not as simple as opening the gates. It requires the industry to rethink regulation, rebuild operational foundations and substantially elevate financial literacy and advisor readiness.

A central theme of the private markets discussion was that regulation is no longer the obstacle many feared. Quite the opposite: frameworks such as ELTIF 2.0 have become enabling forces. As several speakers noted, it represents perhaps the most significant regulatory unlock for private markets in a decade.

But regulation alone cannot solve the access challenge. Education, especially of financial advisors, emerged as a decisive factor in whether private markets allocations materialize at scale.

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“We have a burden to educate people about what they need to look for when they’re entering the private market space and make sure that they really understand the asset class.”

Pascal Schuler (Partners Group)

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The industry has long assumed that the primary education gap lay with end-investors, but the panel made clear that advisors are often the ones lacking confidence in discussing private assets. If an advisor does not feel equipped to explain liquidity mechanics, valuation cycles, capital calls or risk characteristics, they simply won’t bring the topic into the client conversation. To address this, leading managers have launched academies, in-person workshops and structured learning programs designed to prepare wealth managers for a new generation of portfolios.

Technology formed the third pillar of the retailization debate and it was noted that technology is a multiplier for the industry.

Digital infrastructure now plays a critical role in suitability assessments, onboarding flows, periodic liquidity operations, reporting consistency, and the creation of intuitive investor journeys—particularly for the digitally native generation that increasingly expects seamless, app-driven investment experiences. The rise of partnerships with digital platforms and neo-brokers shows how private markets are beginning to reach new user segments that would have been inaccessible only a few years ago.

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“We need to make sure that we are agnostic to the distribution model and that we are enabling that democratization that we have all been talking about.”

Veronique Fournier (Apollo)

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This is a recognition that investors now enter through multiple channels: private banks, financial advisors, digital platforms, and newer hybrid intermediaries. Private markets must be present across all of them.

Interestingly, this view was reflected in a session given by Peter Karst of FNZ Bank about fund brokerage in Germany. He pointed out that German investors are not the traditional “home-biased” savers that stereotypes often suggest. He stated that “there is no home bias. Germans invest into the world… only 1% is invested into home funds.”

The implications are significant. The next wave of growth and investors are likely to be global in nature. They increasingly want exposure that is flexible, systematic, and globally diversified.

Alternatives and the Operational Architecture Behind Them

The conversation on private markets flowed naturally from what was highlighted in the earlier session with Oliver Johnson of SimCorp, which examined the operational realities of managing alternatives and private assets at scale. Johnson illustrated how the economics of private markets are accelerating their institutional importance.

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“Private markets represent roughly 13% of global AUM but they generate 32% of industry revenues.”

Oliver Johnson ( SimCorp}

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This profitability differential is a key reason why traditional managers are expanding aggressively into private markets. But Johnson stressed that scaling private assets requires a step-change in operating models.

Today’s systems, often built for liquid securities, are struggling with unstructured data, manual workflows, idiosyncratic cash flows and the complexities of multi-asset compliance. He argued that the industry is transitioning from siloed systems toward unified investment books of record (IBORs).

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“We believe the game changer is an investment book of record that can natively handle both public and private assets on the same platform.”

Oliver Johnson (SimCorp}

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The implication is clear: the winners of the next decade will be those who modernize their operating foundations early, enabling real-time insight, cross-asset rebalancing and institutional-grade risk management for portfolios that blend public and private exposures.

Evergreen Structures and the Liquidity Toolkit

Liquidity constraints have long been a barrier to private market adoption among wealth clients. The session featuring Clearstream’s Philippe Seyll and Carmignac’s Edouard Boscher highlighted how evergreen funds and the growth of the secondaries market are expanding the liquidity toolkit available to private banks and their clients. These structures, increasingly common, offer a more pragmatic mechanism for long-term investors seeking sustained exposure without the rigidity of traditional closed-end funds.

For an industry attempting to broaden its appeal beyond institutions, evergreen vehicles may prove essential in balancing the desire for private markets exposure with the need for periodic liquidity and more intuitive investor communication.

Technology and Conviction Converge with Active ETFs

If private markets represent one strategic frontier, active ETFs represent another. The session moderated by Clearstream’s Allan Stewart brought together Goldman Sachs AM, J.P. Morgan AM and DWS to discuss the evolution of the active ETF ecosystem. A decade ago, active ETFs were peripheral; today, they represent $1.7 trillion, or roughly 10% of the global ETF market, and are expanding rapidly in Europe.

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“Active ETFs are the best of both worlds.”

Rima Haddad (Goldman Sachs AM)

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Investors increasingly expect vehicles that combine conviction-based decision-making with transparency, liquidity, tax efficiency, and operational simplicity.

Yet the panel cautioned that converting a traditional mutual fund into an ETF is not a plug-and-play operation. It requires specialized market-making relationships, robust connectivity, and careful design of creation/redemption mechanics.

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“ETFs are first and foremost a technology platform. It’s not a product, it’s an infrastructure.”

Michael Mohr of DWS

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Education remains an ongoing challenge, even among professionals, as J.P. Morgan’s Jill Rootsaert reminded the audience.

AI: Beyond the Innovation

Artificial intelligence surfaced repeatedly throughout the Summit, not as a standalone theme but as a cross-cutting enabler. Yet in the final keynote, Christina Stathopoulos of Dare to Data argued that the industry must approach AI with maturity and caution. Her message resonated as a sober counterbalance to technological enthusiasm.

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“I’m not worried about machines taking over—I’m more worried about human misuse.”

Christina Stathopoulos ( Dare to Data)

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Her session highlighted the challenges around data quality, algorithmic bias, regulatory oversight and the escalating pace of AI deployment within financial services. For asset managers looking to harness AI in portfolio analytics, onboarding, reporting or risk management, the emerging regulatory frameworks—particularly the EU AI Act—underscore the importance of embedding responsibility into design decisions.

Europe’s Competitiveness is a Challenge Too Important to Ignore

The Summit’s broader backdrop was provided by Magnus Burkl of Oliver Wyman, whose presentation underscored the urgency of Europe’s capital mobilization problem. To finance its climate transition, digitalization and infrastructure renewal, Europe requires between €800 billion and €1 trillion annually. Yet too much retail wealth remains in deposits, pension systems lack sufficient funded capital, and European financial institutions have lost market share to global peers.

Technological adoption remains uneven, with European firms trailing the US in cloud migration, AI deployment and data infrastructure.

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“The most important thing is partnerships across the whole value chain. The second is data, data, data.”

Peter Karst, FNZ

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The juxtaposition between Europe’s investment needs and its current market structure was stark, and it reinforced the significance of the Summit’s themes: expanding alternatives and private markets, enabling retail investors, scaling new vehicles, and adopting technology that supports more efficient capital formation.

A Roadmap for the Decades Ahead

The 2025 Clearstream Fund Summit revealed a fund industry on the cusp of transformation. The year ahead, and indeed the next decade, will require rapid adaptation.

As the Summit prepares for its 2026 editions in Luxembourg, Asia and Switzerland, the industry’s trajectory is becoming unmistakable. The firms that will lead the next decade are those able to integrate private and public markets, embed technology into the core of their operations, and democratize access without compromising quality. In an era defined by transformation, the most successful players will be the ones who build coherent, scalable, and inclusive investment ecosystems.